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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28585095">Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/roomhermit/pseuds/roomhermit'>roomhermit</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Incomplete, Talking Link, WIP, as in he speaks dialogue, botw, flashbacks of the Champions, just so you're not caught off guard</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 05:53:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,359</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28585095</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/roomhermit/pseuds/roomhermit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Zelda has just awoken from the Calamity battle, and Link has not achieved getting all the memories of their past adventures together. With a new goal, she and Link travel Hyrule, while she learns more about the new post-Calamity world, Link learns more of a past he lived, and the two of them grow closer together.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is a work-in-progress, and future tags will reflect that. Romance will not be a big thing (yet). Enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first thing Zelda recognized was the light. The second thing she recognized was Link. Or rather, the sounds of him. Slowly, her senses came back to her, and she felt that she was lying down on a bed, a heavy-ish blanket over the top of her. She was still in her white dress that she’d spent the last 100 years in, but someone had taken off her sandals and armlets and necklace, the jewelry on the bedside table next to her, and the sandals noticeably on the floor next to the bed. Her vision was hazy as she looked around to see that she seemed to be in a small home, and her hearing told her that Link was around—she heard him humming familiar tunes just like he used to when he cooked. Then she smelled it—some eggs and meat. Then she felt it—the stabbing pain of hunger in her stomach.</p>
<p>She sat up, and swung her legs off the bed, feeling a cooler floor underfoot nearly send a shiver up her spine. She stood up unsteadily, surprised her legs continued to function. She walked over to the loft railing and looked down at the kitchen-dining-room set up in the small home she found herself set up in. She saw Link have his back to her, hair down, but an undershirt and pants on (as if she suspected different), leaning over a skillet with the heavenly smells of breakfast. The table was set for two plates, with a happy little bouquet of pink and yellow miscellaneous flowers in the center, with four chairs surrounding the table on both sides.</p>
<p>Zelda debated going downstairs just yet and opted to look around where she was already. She stopped in front of a desk that also overlooked the railing. She saw that it was immaculate. She came to the conclusion it was most likely because it hadn’t been used often, rather than the idea that Link—whom she assumed owned the house?—had taken to cleaning it every day. She looked behind her and found a dresser, with some clothes sticking out of it (was that a Gerudo uniform?), and mounted above it was the photo from the day she and Link and all the others were dubbed the Champions. She’d loved that picture, and would look at it often. Now to see it outside of the slate was… a different feeling that she couldn’t place.</p>
<p>She began to walk towards the stairs to the main area, and its satisfying creaks alerted Link that the other person in his house had awoken. He turned to her, and waved with the hand unoccupied with the food.</p>
<p>“Good morning, Princess,” Link said to her, smiling warmly. He glanced back down to make sure the food was ready before taking the skillet off the stove fire and bringing it over to the table, setting half of it on one plate and a half on the other. Zelda had never felt so much hunger in her life.</p>
<p>“Good morning…Link,” Zelda said hesitantly, almost scared she’d forgotten how to talk. She took her place in front of one of the plates, which now had a large helping of eggs and cooked meat, as Link poured a glass of water for her.</p>
<p>“Are you feeling better?” Link offered a start to a conversation, as he took a seat across from her. “You’ve been asleep for three days. Everyone else was starting to worry about you.”</p>
<p>“I suppose I am—everyone else?” Zelda suddenly realized with alarm that even though she was with her knight and trusted that he wouldn’t take her anywhere unsafe, she felt a sincere disturbance that she had no idea where in Hyrule she was. “Who is everyone else?”</p>
<p>“And here, I thought you’d watched my journey from Hyrule castle,” he teased, shoveling some food into his mouth. “I had made some…decisions while traveling around and managed to snag a deal on a nice little home in Hateno.”</p>
<p>Zelda didn’t try to hide her incredulous stare. “It’s not like I scried on you all the time, you know. It took a lot of extra power just to make sure you heard my voice, let alone get a visual on what you were doing. It is a nice home, though.” Looking around, she noticed on the walls that he’d hung the other Champion’s weapons along with them—Mipha’s spear, Daruk’s boulder smasher, and Urbosa’s scimitar all hung behind Link’s head, and she recognized Revali’s signature bow on the wall to the left. On the right, she saw Urbosa’s shield as well as the fated Hylian shield, a shield that really was never supposed to leave Hyrule Castle, but since there wasn’t one right now, this was second best.</p>
<p>“Thanks,” Link accepted the compliment, but not before emptying another forkful into his mouth.</p>
<p>“Wait…” Zelda finally thought over everything he’d said to her. “I’ve been asleep for three days? What all has happened?” The last thing she remembered was sealing away Ganon forever, with the help of Link, of course. She remembered being in the fields in front of the castle, turning to Link and asking if he remembered who she was. Some warmth and a lot of sunlight. From there, nothing.</p>
<p>“After you’d passed out in the field, I made sure to get you here as soon as possible. Usually, I come here alone so I sure did scare Thadd—he guards the village, sort of. He keeps an eye out for potential Yiga members, and he was scared you were one in disguise. But he waved us off well enough and I put you here to keep you safe. I only left for short times to go the market and stuff; in case you woke up.” He gently pushed his empty plate away from him, before letting out a soft sigh. “I’m very glad you woke up, though. I got worried a little bit, sometimes it seemed like you weren’t even breathing… sorry, that’s awkward.”</p>
<p>“How is Hyrule functioning?” Zelda quickly covered, not wanting to dwell on sudden memories of Link dying. “How is Impa? I know she’s still around. And aren’t there others? And uh, what’s life like now?” Her expression quickly dropped. “Do you still remember me?”</p>
<p>Link frowned at her last question. “I know… bits and pieces. But I wasn’t able to follow the clues you left,” he said this and held up the Sheikah slate. The Sheikah slate! Zelda would finally be able to update her research and collection of Hylian specimens!</p>
<p>“May I see the Sheikah slate? I don’t quite understand what you mean by ‘clues’.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, sure,” Link said, standing up to unhook the slate from his belt. As he came over, he also took their empty plates and started on dishes. Almost instinctually, Zelda remembered exactly how to get to every menu in the slate. She saw the restored map of Hyrule and all the activated shrines Link had accomplished. She swiped one page over to the Album to see 12 photographs, some she didn’t even remember taking. She swiped again and saw some pictures that Link had seemed to have taken—some rather impressive landscape shots, some photos of Blood Moons that made the world look more ethereal than ever, some bugs and flowers, some monsters, even some people. She swiped back to the 12 photos she recognized.</p>
<p>She looked up at Link, who was at the sink now. “Are these photos the clues you mentioned?” As he turned to look, she held the slate up towards him with the photo screen showing and he confirmed with a nod. “Why didn’t you go searching, then? Some of them are pretty easy to find, I think. Unless,” she inhaled sharply at her new conclusion. “Unless…those places don’t exist anymore.”</p>
<p>“They exist, don’t worry.”</p>
<p>“I don’t know how you were supposed to interpret these as clues, but I suppose it was the right idea. Maybe going there would make you remember something.” Zelda smiled into the slate, barely seeing her reflection bounce back. “Maybe we can look together. That way, if you don’t remember, maybe I can jog your memory.”</p>
<p>“That’d…be really nice, Zelda,” Link said, seemingly bashful about the suggestion, but she wasn’t going to press him for it. He must be as tired as she is if it’s only been three days since the fall of Calamity Ganon. </p>
<p>Link turned on a chipper smile. “To answer your question, as for the rest of Hyrule… everything could be much worse! Rupees seem to still have value and people are travelling now more than ever. If you plan on rebuilding under the Hyrule family, you shouldn’t be met with a lot of resistance. I met a girl who’s devout in following in your footsteps, in terms of visiting all the springs.”</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t wish that on anyone,” Zelda chuckled to herself. “So much emotional labor in those times… and the water was always so cold.” Link laughed as well.</p>
<p>There was a knock on the door. Link wiped his hands on a spare towel and half-jogged over to answer it. Zelda at this point tuned him out to deal with the slate she held in her hands. It’d been so long since she felt it—there was something powerful inside of it, making it run. She couldn’t wait to study it more; she only hoped Link could stand to part with it for a bit, since it accompanied him on his journey. </p>
<p>“ZELDAAAAAAAAA!!!”</p>
<p>Zelda turned in surprise as she saw only a flash of white hair throw itself onto her and knock her nearly off her chair and slam her into the table. She recognized it as a hug, even if unprompted and harshly given. But it was from the body of a small child, who knew her name. And Zelda was at an absolute loss for who it could be.</p>
<p>“I-I’m sorry, but who are you?” Zelda stammered out, only to be met with eyes that peered from almost comedically large glasses, hair in an equally large bun with some Sheikah tech on top of it, and the small pudgy face of a six-year-old child but eyes with the wisdom of a thousand years.</p>
<p>“Oh, my bad. Of course, you wouldn’t recognize me,” the child said mostly to herself, removing her body from Zelda and taking a few steps back. “I bet Linky’s been too rude to even tell you I’d changed a bit.” Something was familiar about that nickname, and it made Link look to the side in mild embarrassment. She then balled up both her hands, leaving only the pointer and pinkie fingers up, and stuck the thumbs out. “It’s me, Purah! Check it!”</p>
<p>Zelda had no idea what to do with this information. “What—but—you were—I don’t—how do you look so young?!” As her brain threatened to stop functioning from the suddenness of seeing one of the senior members of Guardian research when she was a child now younger than herself, Zelda placed her head in her hands and noticed the (significantly) taller man that had accompanied her. “And, you are?”</p>
<p>The man did a soft bow, and said, “My name is Symon, your highness. I have been aiding Purah in her research for quite a while now.”</p>
<p>“She’s only just woken up, Purah,” Link placed a hand on Purah’s head as if that would calm her down. “I couldn’t tell her everything immediately. And besides,” he walked over to Zelda and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, “we’ve just finished breakfast. I was going to maybe mention going over to your lab, but I see I was too late.”</p>
<p>“I’d had a feeling! An intuition! An inkling!” Purah exclaimed, and it was strange to hear the voice of a young child say words like ‘intuition’. “I had to make my way over here immediately! If only, just to say hello! And maybe to tell the children here to leave me alone,” She swayed her hips childishly; Zelda still wasn’t used to this new version of Purah.</p>
<p>“Impa isn’t like this as well, is she?” Zelda asked hesitantly, absolutely not knowing if she’d be able to handle a small child version of her as well.</p>
<p>“Oh, Hylia, no!” Purah chided. “This was a…personal endeavor.”</p>
<p>Symon chimed in, “The original intent was to develop a way to keep soldiers ‘in their prime’, so to speak, and keeping them eternally young and only get better. Unfortunately, it went a bit too far into the past for our liking.”</p>
<p>“It’d be bad for morale to have an army of toddlers, tsk tsk.” Purah added. Her face turned serious. “Your question confirms my hypothesis—you haven’t been to visit Impa yet. She wrote to me asking about the events three days ago. By now, most of Hyrule knows something happened at the castle, but not entirely what. The monster attacks have certainly calmed down, and whatever Guardians were active have deactivated! Perhaps an explanation from the revived Hylian Princess herself will be more sufficient than any letter I could write back, mhm?”</p>
<p>“Y-yes, Purah. I agree. I’m still a bit tired, but if I remember correctly, it’ll still take a while to get there.”</p>
<p>“I do have a horse,” Link interrupted, taking the attention of the group. “So, it shouldn’t take as long. Plus, if we run by the stable on the way, we can each have our own horses.”</p>
<p>Zelda turned from Link to Purah. “Thank you for visiting, we now know where we have to go.”</p>
<p>Purah gave a thumbs up, and, after more pleasantries, she and Symon took their leave. As they finished up breakfast, and Link wrapped up dishes, they both went outside into the humble front yard of their home. There was a nice bridge that kept them separate but close to Hateno Village. Flowers and bushes dotted the yard, not haphazardly, but messy enough to be pleasing. Link led Zelda to the side of the house, where she saw a horse that looked much like the one she had before the Calamity.</p>
<p>“Storm!” she yelled in excitement, forgetting that it would be impossible for that to occur. How could she think it impossible when the horse was even wearing the royal armor?</p>
<p>“Not… not quite,” Link started. But after seeing her excitement, he didn’t want to crush her joy. He simply smiled, not quite used to Zelda having such a physical presence in his life yet, but also feeling a little more complete in her being there. He approached behind her and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “We should probably get you some different clothes. Impa will probably have the ones you explored in all the time, but in the meantime, I’m sure you want out of that dress?” Zelda slowly looked down at herself, in her mostly clean white dress. It had somehow cleaned itself over 100 years, but she was very much sick of it. “There is a clothing shop in town,” Link offered. “It won’t be as personal but it’ll do.”</p>
<p>“That… sounds lovely, Link,” Zelda responded. “I assume you have the money for it?”</p>
<p>“Haha, yeah. I saved up a lot, compared to what I had when I first woke up.”</p>
<p>“I’m sure it was absolutely nothing.”</p>
<p>“Correct. I wish we had thought that far ahead.”</p>
<p>“It was the end of times, Link!” Zelda chided, smiling to show she wasn’t serious. “We had a few more other worries than if rupees would still be the currency by the end of the day, and if some would be left with you. I’d like to think your life is a little more important.”</p>
<p>“I appreciate it, Princess,” Link chuckled to himself. Talking with her seemed so natural. He held out a hand. “Shall we get going?”</p>
<p>“Are we taking the horse?”</p>
<p>“Must we?”</p>
<p>“Please? I miss horse riding terribly.”</p>
<p>Link shrugged and said, “Okay, we can take Vanilla.” He led the horse by the reign outside of the shelter so that they could both get on her comfortably. He got on first and re-extended his hand to Zelda, who took it and, after some maneuvering, settled on behind him, with both her legs hanging on one side, and her arms around his waist.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry, did you say her name was Vanilla?”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Link answered, gently guiding the horse forward in a slow walk. “I found her in the hills between Hyrule Castle and Satori Mountain. An old man at the stable and I came to the conclusion that she is a descendant of Storm, and he’d held onto the armor for whenever the white horse had been tamed. So, I came across her, and I got the horse armor, and the rest is what you see now.”</p>
<p>“Ah, yes. That makes more sense,” Zelda tightened her grip around him a little more. “I suppose I should’ve expected that Storm wouldn’t have lived after 100 years. How silly of me.”</p>
<p>“Well, you lived for more than 100 years. I think you and I are the oldest living Hylians,” Link teased. They rode slowly and silently for only a couple of minutes; Link led the horse down the vague stairs in the road and onto the main path. By now, a few villagers have been outside their home and have been doing work in their private crops. The children were starting to emerge and took an immediate interest in the stranger that Link brought in.</p>
<p>They stopped outside of the clothing shop. Link hopped off, helped Zelda down, and led Vanilla to the side, and out of the way. They entered, and Zelda saw a small but humble set of clothes beset in front of her. A suit of Hylian armor stood in one corner and it unsettled her a bit, bringing up some visuals of a time long gone. There was also a tunic with many colors, some standard pants, and a cloak with a hood to accompany it. “Um, please let me know if you need anything,” a girl—apparently the shopkeeper—sheepishly said from a corner of the shop, immediately to the right of the door they entered through.</p>
<p>“I think I will take the tunic and the pants. The cloak would be good, too, in case it rains,” Zelda mumbled to herself. “But the armor could give me some anonymity, and would no doubt provide more protection.”</p>
<p>“Please, don’t worry about protection,” Link chimed in. “I didn’t stop being your royal knight… I didn’t get fired, right?”</p>
<p>Zelda let out a loud, hearty laugh, and it was a lovely sound to Link’s ears. “No, you did not get fired, and believe me, I tried.” Link looked back at her confused, but she had already turned back to the tunic, feeling the fabric. She went to the saleswoman and said, “I would like the tunic, pants, and cloak, please.”</p>
<p>“O-oh! Of course, ma’am. That’ll be… 270 rupees, ma’am.”</p>
<p>Link gave her the rupees, and the woman let them take the clothes. “There is a changing room upstairs if you’d like!” The woman offered. Zelda took the clothes, and the offer, and changed. When she came back down, Link attempted to stifle a small laugh.</p>
<p>Apparently he didn’t hide it well enough. “What’s so funny?” Zelda asked him, placing her hands on her hips.</p>
<p>“I chose the same thing when I came here is all. A month or so after I woke up,” Link said, allowing himself to smile a little wider.</p>
<p>“So you’re telling me we didn’t have to spend money on more clothes?”</p>
<p>“No, because I’m literally wearing the same pair of pants. We’d have to spend money either way.”</p>
<p>“Oh,” Zelda tried to save herself. “Well then. We should get going.” She turned to the woman. “Thank you for your service today.”</p>
<p>The woman looked at her shyly, and somewhat surprised. “Y-yes, thank you, too! For-for your purchase, I mean.”</p>
<p>They both left and boarded the horse once more. Link turned behind to allow Zelda to hear better. “To Impa?”</p>
<p>“To Impa.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>My favorite part was Grammarly repeatedly trying to replace "Link" with "The link". Truly not built for Legend of Zelda fanfiction.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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